Felted wool soaker shorts/ capris and instructions

It's getting towards the end of the time that wool sweaters are at the thrift stores, at least around here. We found a couple great ones, though, this green one is lamb's wool- so soft! Unfortunately it felted up too small to make soaker shorts for Hannah, but they are cute and fun to make anyway.

To felt, just run it through the washer and dryer in hot water/ hot dry as many times as you need to to make the fibers all 'felt' together. You can cut it without fraying once it's done. This one was ready to work with after just one wash/dry cycle.



First lay out your sweater, then place a pair of pants on top to see where the seams will be.

Trace the pants, but give yourself a generous seam allowance- felted wool is thick. This sweater was too small to give a good seam allowance, but if I had enough I'd give myself a good 1/2 inch.



Cut your legs out of the arms. Make sure you do them opposite. Then turn them so one is inside-out (as shown above) I made little scallops at the bottom for the cuffs. Because it's felt, it doesn't fray and doesn't need to be serged or anything.

Put one leg inside the other, right sides together. Stitch along the crotch all the way around and leave the top where the waist will be open

Pull the one leg out of the other, and turn right-side out (so your seam is inside)

Trim off the top so it's all even



And then turn inside out again. Add elastic, if you want, to the top. If you have the room you can also fold over the pants and make a cased opening for your elastic or draw string. We just dropped about an inch down and sewed elastic on with a 3-step zig-zag, stretching the elastic as we sewed. This is 3/4 inch swimsuit elastic and is just what I have on hand for making diapers. Swimsuit elastic is rubber covered by soft cotton, and it's designed for lots of washing, so it doesn't wear out as quickly as regular elastic. For these pants regular elastic that you can get at the fabric store would work just fine, though.

Turn right side out, and you can see how the elastic made the ruffled edge up top. I went back and reinforced my crotch seam with a lock stitch too. You could needle felt or add felt embellishments or embroidery onto the legs if you want.

To use as a diaper soaker, just lanolize the wool. Wash cold (I'll often run a gentle cycle on cold for wool) and air dry so it doesn't shrink more. To lanolize, dissolve about an inch of lanolin (it comes in a tube, is used for breastfeeding. I think even target or Walmart has it in the 'breastfeeding section' of the store.) Anyway, dissolve 1 inch of lanolin in about a cup of hot hot tap water. Fill the sink with luke warm water. Turn your soaker inside out and submerge in the sink. Pour your lanolin and hot water into the sink now. Swish the soaker around a bit, then pull it out, through the lanolin that will be sitting on top of the water. Gently squeeze out the water and lay flat to dry. The lanolin will help make your soaker water resistant